Story+2005-05-15+Cleveland,+OH

´´Good evening, Cleveland....great to be in town, thank you....uh....let me see, the last time I was here was on the Vote for Change-tour....which was, uh, either (?) inspirational or traumatic memory for me, depending on how I feel....we voted, we didn´t change....but uh.... what can I say?....there´s work to do, men have got through the Dark Ages before....this is, I wrote a lot of songs, uh, on this record about sons and, and mothers, and, uh, there´s three or four, I guess, and in each of them that bond gets severed in, in some way....uh, this is, uh.... this is a song that, uh....I kind of...there´s a fella named Jonothon Kozol who wrote some beautiful books about children in the innercity, one´s called Amazing Grace, which, uh, is worth getting a hold of and explains how we triage our citizens, we decide whose dreams are worth, worth, uh....worth living and, and, and whose are not and, uh, those that fall by the wayside are just the price of doing business, this is called ´Black Cowboys´....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Black Cowboys´´**

´´Thank you, when I, uh....first started writing....I didn´t write, uh, I didn´t write many love songs, uh, perhaps I, uh....wasn´t filled with much love....(?) well, I got like mixed signals at home, you know, my, my mother had on the top40 radio on in the morning and I, and I heard all the beautiful 1950´s doowop love songs, ´In the Still of the Night´ and ´Gloria´ and that was an unusual moment because all the men on the radio at the time were attempting to sing like beautiful women and, uh, had this beautiful, angelic, high voices and there was some recognition that women were the repository of love as, uh, men were the repository of confusion and uh (chuckles) so you had all these men transforming themselves, you know, transforming themselves (sings in a high voice:) Gloria....I can´t do it very well but it was a beautiful (chuckles) but it was a beautiful sound and, uh, uh, so, and my mother would have it on every morning and she´d be like ´What a lovely, what a lovely song, that´s my favorite song´ and then my dad was kind of sitting there at the kitchen table and he had a very simple approach, his approach was ´Bruce, uh, all love songs are a government conspiracy....and, uh, uh, they are there simply to get you married so you´ll have to pay more taxes´....and, uh, that was his approach so I mean.....makes sense (?) I mean otherwise it´s, it´s no crazier than ´Hey, we´ll find a bunch of old trailers and we´ll convince everybody they´re mobile weapons´ labs´ (?)....uh, at any rate, so what I, I ended up doing was I ended up hiding, hiding my love songs, I hid all the early, uh, uh, all the early, uh (?)....but at any rate, so I hid all my early love songs so I´m gonna pop a few of ´em on you here, let me see if I can..... Jane, I´m gonna do this for you tonight, Jane Scott....(?)....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Incident on 57th Street´´**

´´Evolution.....80 years after the Scopes´ monkey trial....Kansas Board of Education has decided it´s time to throw evolution out once more.....now the President....President says jury´s out on evolution....can´t be sure.....it´s very, very iffy, very, very iffy....and if they´re not sure in Washington....how sure can they be in Kansas?....wanting to follow the leader.... now, personally I think the President believes in evolution but he can´t say so....he´s been around the block.....but he also knows that the monkey-vote didn´t put him in the office....so ....he´s just doing what he has to do....so he can do what he wants to do, a lot of folks do that ....now today....if they put out Inherit the Wind, which was the movie they made about the Scopes´ monkey trial, Spenser Tracy starred in it.....me and Jane Scott remember that (chuckles) Spenser Tracy would be called a devil´s tool and they´d picket the movie in the theaters....The Flintstones couldn´t get made today....the whole neanderthal setting, it´s proof of evolution....the whole Barney-Fred relationship....too controversial....creates more controversy....Bubbles, come home....what´s the matter with Kansas?.... (....) We´ve come a long way, baby....and we´re going back.....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Part Man Part Monkey´´**

´´Alright, this is a song about love, the ecstasies of love....the pleasures of passion, the, uh.... let´s have it all right here and now....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Maria´s Bed´´**

´´This is a, uh.....song off Devils and Dust and it will, uh....soon be available in Krispy Kremes all across the nation....this is a, uh.....song about not being able to handle the real thing and, uh, not being able to handle the wrong thing that well either so anyway....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Reno´´**

´´Alright, oh, thanks, fellas....we have a little ´Men at work´-sign (chuckles) a very special piano, it can only be onstage for one song (chuckles) let´s see what we got here....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Wreck on the Highway´´**

´´Thank you, I was, uh....I was brought up Catholic so....Jesus is my homeboy....and, uh, that´s the way that works and, uh, I think back on that, they picked the Pope a couple weeks ago and when I was in Catholic school, man, that would´ve been a big deal and, uh, but now it´s kind of like you´re watching kind of a high-end trade for a team you don´t really play for any more....but, uh, but still, you know, you´re interested in where they are in the standings and how it´s going but uh....Jane, Jane, Jane Scott brought back, uh, uh, two things, she brought back a picture of her and I taken a while back but she also brought back a picture of, of her and the Pope, uh, with a group of Lithuanians for some reason, I don´t know why (chuckles) but uh.....this was a song that, uh, uh, I was interested in the relationship between Jesus and Mary as Jesus being her son, just what would it be like if He was just your boy and, uh, we respect our....children´s decisions, at certain point everybody have their own destiny and the choices that we make are given their value by the things that we sacrifice for them, the parts of life that we sacrifice....and, uh....this is called ´Jesus Was an Only Son´.... (....) at His mother´s feet....now, one of the first shocking things about having your children is....you immediately realise that there´s nothing, nothing you wouldn´t do to keep them safe ....and to protect them.....and for a lifelong....self-involved (chuckles) musician, it can come as a shocking, shocking insight but..... (....) shall pierce your dreams this night.....now, if our choices are given value by what are the things we give up....I always figured He´d have to be thinking....´Gee, Galilee is pretty nice this time of year....there´s that little bar down there.....I could manage the place.....Mary Magdalene could tend bar....I could save the preaching for the weekends....and, uh, we could have some kids and watch then grow up....get to feel the sun on your face.....you get to feel the air in your lungs....(?)....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Jesus Was an Only Son´´**

´´I stole the title for this song from a Roy Orbison song....he had a song called ´Leah,´ it was about a pearl diver and, uh, a beautiful song about a pearl diver and, uh, I got, I was lucky enough that I met Roy before he passed away and I went to his house one afternoon and, uh, he said ´Gee, I got this new song about windsurfing´....and I said, I didn´t say it but I thought to myself ´That´s not gonna fly´....you can write about a lot of songs, surfing, uh huh, windsurfing, uh uh....look what it did to John Kerry in the election, it killed him, why? I don´t know, what´s the difference? it´s just a sail.....but he had this whole song about windsurfing ....and it came out on a record and it was fabulous (chuckles) it was terrific and, uh, almost made me wanna windsurf (chuckles) but, uh, just goes to show you gotta have faith in your abilities (chuckles) but this was, uh, this is a song about we all carry the seeds of our destruction, just the merry part of the human condition and, uh, we also carry a map....that gets us out of there so this is a song about a guy just coming down on the right side of that equation, just, just getting, just figuring out, this is called ´Leah´....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Leah´´**

´´Thank you....this was, uh....I guess this is the flipside of that coin, this next song, this is, uh ....a song, uh....a young guy gets in trouble, leaves home, goes to New Orleans, becomes a fighter and quite a champion and comes home towards the end of his life and uh....stops by his mother´s house, the whole song is this discussion that he has through a locked door with his mother....Freud, where are you when we need you? (chuckles) but uh, I grew up in a house that sort of felt both the crushing hand of fate along with fortune and, uh, they don´t quite cancel each other out, this is called ´The Hitter´....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´The Hitter´´**

´´Thank you, on the, uh, Tom Joad-tour, I used to end the show with a song called ´Across the Border,´ this was a song I wrote as a sequel....and, uh, a man makes the same journey, kind of fuelled by the same love for his family and his kids, in search of something a little bit better, uh, so many people, hundreds of people die each year trying to get into the United States, they die in the rivers and they die in, in our mountains and in our deserts and, uh, instead of vigilantes down along the border what we need is a humane immigration policy.... I wrote this song backwards, kind of, uh, began with the, uh, body at the bottom of the river back to the walk across the desert to the, uh, standing on the banks of the Matamoros, which is a town across from Brownsville, Texas, this is called ´Matamoros Banks´....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Matamoros Banks´´**

´´Thanks....gonna do this one tonight for our friends from the Cleveland Foodbank....they work here in Cleveland, provide food and support to a lot of agencies that help feed the struggling citizens of Ohio, you can see them on the way out, the Cleveland Foodbank, they´re just here year after year doing, uh, they´re doing God´s work so, uh....give ´em a hand.....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´Land of Hope and Dreams´´**

´´Wanna say, uh, wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show tonight, thank you very much....it´s always a pleasure to come back to Cleveland, I´ve been coming here a long time ....and, uh, want to say, uh (some guy yells ´We love you, Bruce!´) thank you, my friend, and vice versa (chuckles) and, uh, this is, uh....I, I love men testify their love for me (chuckles)(?) ....but uh....uh.....just wanna thank you for being a gracious audience and giving me the room to do this tonight, I appreciate that....I was looking for something new we could do together so....´´
 * 15.05.05 Cleveland, OH, intro to ´´The Promised Land´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//